ashes
by ThatStrangeWriter
Summary: A weird Violentine AU that makes no sense but is somehow worth reading


A/N:

Hey, thanks for like...bothering to read this. I've been traveling through Chile and have this ridiculous cold (of COURSE these two things are in the same sentence). I had no idea what to do for this prompt, then this idea strolled in. If you don't understand some of what's going on—that's sort of the point. I'm being vage for a reason. This has about 70 reads and for me—that's amazing. Like...70 different people clicked on this book. (Or one person refreshed the page 70 times), either way, THANKS.

Week 3:

The hum. The symphony of noises surrounding everything and everyone. Constant. Loud.

Sometimes it got to be too much. It overloaded her system, in a way.

So she ran. Away, to somewhere else. Not far, but distant, nonetheless.

This time is was the woods again. The usual spot.

There was something strange about that place. It felt like she was never alone. Because she wasn't. To her, it was comforting. To others—not so much. That's probably why it was always empty.

Some claimed if you walked down this deep dark forest long after the sun set, the trees were dead and the rivers were none.

But those were rumors.The trees watched her. The rivers gurgled. The sun hadn't even set yet. The chattering of the nearby villages couldn't be heard here.

So there she was. Clementine decided to stay for a while. There wasn't any other places she currently needed to be. Nobody wanted her anywhere else. She would bet a quite a few coins that no one noticed she was gone.

Sitting down on a log, Clementine sighed. Now she would wait.

Wait for the feeling. The feeling of being watched and not being alone. Not as scary as it may sound. Comforting at times. It mostly just made her curious. Who was watching her? According to the legends; what was was watching her?

It was actually hard to tell when someone was near. The feeling was always there. It meant whoever was out there was listening from afar. When it got stronger, that meant they were here. Stepping on the same ground as her. Close, but so far.

Willingly, Clementine began to talk. About her day. AJ. About what was happening in this world. The upcoming war. It was going to be declared any day now. Many individual villages were preparing to leave, find a way to live in the wild. Others were burned to the ground. Everyone blamed it on the Creatures.

Whoever she was talking to you, they clearly weren't human. Well...the conversations were a but one-sided. But Clementine knew they were there. No leaves had fallen as an answer, but she knew Violet was there.

The notes. They had never spoken to each other before. Most times, an answer would be burned onto a falling leaf.

Clementine kept them all.

Some of them were sweet.

Others were out-of-context and random.

Most were just small snippets of a conversation.

But Clementine wanted words.

A voice.

For now, it was okay.

It was all she could ask for.

She had wasted most of her wishes hoping this war would never come.

Now she knew hoping was stupid.

The sun had begun to set, casting a soft golden glow over the forest. As Clementine began to get inpatient for a response, she heard a rustle from the trees. Was this a response?

The feeling.

It was stronger.

She stood up quickly, instinctively reaching for her knife before calming down and dropping her hands once she realized she had been waiting for this.

"Hello?" She called softly.

Maybe this time she'd come out of hiding.

Oh, a lowly peasant could dream.

A stubborn individual, this creature.

The leaves crunched behind her.

Clementine spun around, pigtails flying.

"Why do you do this?" She questioned, a swirl of emotions flying through her all at once. Confusion, anger, curiosity, and just a slight twinge of betrayal. Here she was, laid bare, waiting. And Violet still wouldn't come out.

They were friends, right?

When no answer came, she tried again, "I come out here everyday. And you have the audacity to never show yourself."

The woods were quiet, and Clementine was furious.

"It's dangerous to come out at a time like this."

It talked.

She talked.

"W-what?" After waiting so long for the moment—she got a verbal answer, and she was a stuttering idiot.

"A war is coming. And it's apparently my fault."

Her fault? Maybe on her species' fault. She couldn't have caused a war. She'd been here the whole time. With me.

"You know I'm right behind you, right?"

Clementine spun so fast she almost got whiplash.

A figure.

A girl.

A fairy?

Blond, she looked about as young as Clementine.

Honestly, she looked normal.

Except she was a bit...see through.

Holy-shit-I-can-walk-right-through-you, sort of pale.

"Are you a—"

"Fairy? Yeah, Violet pleased to meet you."

Even though they had talked before—through the leaf notes—Clem was still nervous. They had already had proper introductions, but it seemed right to do in words that weren't scribbled with fire. Clementine stayed silent until a question popped up in her mind.

"But you're eyes aren't Vio—"

"No, they're not. I'm a different type of Fairy." She snapped.

Clementine backed off the topic, her eye color didn't matter and it was clearly a touchy subject. Unlike most Fairies, her name didn't match her eyes.

Since this was off to a strange start, Clementine decided that she should try to start over then.

"I'm Clemen—"

"I know."

Violet was beginning to get on her nerves. But then again—she had blabbered everything to her for hours in the woods many times for more than a year now.

"I know you know a lot about me but...we're just meeting face to face and..." Clementine stepped closer to Violet, reaching out.

"And what?" Violet's voice was soft now, and she approached Clem slowly.

"Why now?" They were now both sitting on the log again, close enough that their knees touched. Violet didn't feel like a ghost or act like a oh-so-dreaded-fairy.

She acted like...Violet.

"Why today? Out of all the days in the year, why this one?"

Her voice was barely a whisper now, "I don't know. I guess it felt like we were running out of time."

On cue, another warning horn was blown. Clementine didn't move. But the world felt even more spectacularly still than before.

The silence before the storm.

She imagined the chaos and confusion in the village at the moment. The horn only meant one thing. Would they actually notice she wasn't cowering in the safe room?

As if sensing her troubles, Violet grabbed Clementine's hand and squeezed it.

She looked into Clementine's eyes and pushed away a stray curl from her forehead.

They were well hidden. The villagers—however—weren't. Most of the screams couldn't be heard from here, but some of them cut through the blanket of trees; sending a chill through the air. Sometimes safe rooms just weren't enough.

They stayed there for a while, quiet.

They silence seemed to fit them.

Then there was the soft murmur of conversation.

Another scream cut through the air and the two girls gave up on talking.

Clementine put her head on Violet's shoulder and they looked up at the small traces of sunset in the sky, ignoring the ashes blowing in the wind.

They were going to be okay.

Maybe hope wasn't stupid, maybe—

Clementine pushed away those thought and scooted closer to Violet as another explosion rung out.

Who could believe that at a time like this?

But Violet was here and they were okay and—

She hid her eyes on Violet's shoulder.

The smoke was starting to come through the woods.

An ironic metaphor. Two of the opposite sides clinging to each other through this preventable war.

Because one moment they were there and the next they were gone.


End file.
